Vehicle systems developers continue to innovate in the field of vehicle safety systems. One type of vehicle safety system alerts drivers to obstacles in the surrounding environment. Referred to as obstacle detection systems, these safety systems detect obstacles in the vehicle's forward or reverse path of movement. Obstacles may be, for example, pedestrians, bicycles, road blocks, other cars, etc.
Obstacle detection systems monitor the road in front of or behind a vehicle while the vehicle is moving. If the vehicle approaches an object, an obstacle detection system identifies the object as an obstacle and warns the driver of its presence. Alerted to the presence of the obstacle, the driver may then take precautions to avoid the obstacle. Accordingly, obstacle detection systems can reduce the risk of collisions with an obstacle thereby improving vehicle safety.
Known obstacle detection systems may operate using radar, ultrasonic sensors, or cameras to monitor the proximity of objects to a vehicle. Conventional camera-based obstacle detection systems capture and analyze a sequence of images to detect objects and identify obstacles in the path of a vehicle. The process of analyzing the image sequence, however, may be computationally complex and may require supplemental information such as, for example, motion parameters obtained from vehicle sensors. As a result, known camera-based obstacle detection systems may require relatively more hardware resources and processing time.
Therefore, a need exists for a simplified approach to detecting objects and identifying obstacles in a path of a vehicle.